Following Where Life Leads You

Following Where Life Leads You

By: Erica Shine

“My stepmom always used to tell me that I would make a great attorney because I had mastered the art of arguing”. 

From the time that Deanna Sanchez was a young child she had a way of making her point come across to anyone who was willing to listen and often times to people who weren’t interested in hearing anything that she had to say.   

Her petite frame matched her often times quiet and timid demeanor, but it was also a camouflage for her strong opinions and infectious ideas. Deanna didn’t want to argue with people in the basic sense of the word, but rather use her powers of persuasion to put forth the many valid points that she was trying to convey.  This passion to persuade is what led Deanna to apply to law school in 1990.  It was a hard road to get to that point in her life, but every hardship that was endured made her admittance into CU Law School all the more rewarding, and if certain events had been different in her life up to that point, she may have never ended up with the opportunities that she has today.

The Beginning

Deanna had spent most of her life in Newton New Jersey but she was born in Denver, CO.  She was the child of parents who were divorced and her mother decided to move the family to Newton when she was only three years old.   “It was really hard only getting to see my dad a couple of times a year, but I did enjoy the time that I got to spend in both New Jersey and Colorado as a child”. 

Other than the fact that her parents were separated Deanna had a pretty normal childhood.  When she was in her senior year of high school she new that college would be her next step in life.  Neither of her parents had graduated from college and she new this was something she wanted to accomplish and she also knew that higher education would afford her many more opportunities over the course of her career. 

Deanna had met her mister right in her senior year of high school so she did not want to be too far from her home in New Jersey. She enrolled at a university in Massachusetts that was close to her love and her family, but after one year of attending college not very far from home she felt it was time to really shake things up and make a big change in her life. Out of state college tuition was taking its toll, and mister right turned out to be not mister right and she wanted to make a permanent shift in her life.  She did not take this decision lightly.  She did want to start over somewhere new, but it was going to be really hard to say goodbye to her mom and her siblings. 

As hard as goodbyes were, she knew this was going to be the change that she really needed in her life.  In order to fix the problem of paying for out of state tuition she decided that moving to Colorado would be the perfect fit.  She would be able to go to college on in state tuition because her father lived in the state and she would have more time to spend with her dad and her grandmother who also lived in Colorado.  This move was far enough away from her roots to be able to start over fresh, but also had a touch of home and family nearby for the times when she might feel homesick.  This move would turn out to be a key component in Deanna’s academic success.

Settling Into Colorado

Deanna applied to The University of Colorado and was accepted, so she packed up her life as she knew it in New Jersey and headed out to Colorado to make a new life for herself.  She studied for one full year at CU while she was living on campus.  She really loved the University and had met some really wonderful people, but the cost of living on campus became a burden.  She considered moving in with her father so she could save some money while she was trying to pay her way through school, but he was settled in Westminster, CO, which would be quite a drive each day to either the Boulder or the Denver CU campus.  Ultimately she made the decision to move in with her Grandmother who lived in Denver not far from the CU campus.  It was a benefit for both Deanna and her grandmother.  Deanna could help care for her Grandmother, she would be very close to school, and she would still be close enough to her dad to visit him often. 

Closing One Door and Opening Another

She settled in with her Grandmother, and remained with her until she received her undergraduate degree.  Deanna was the first person in her family to complete college, and everyone could not have been more proud, but she knew her educational journey was not supposed to end with the completion of her bachelor’s degree and that this was only the beginning.  Deanna had known for quite some time that she wanted to go to law school.  “Taking my LSAT’s and filling out law school applications was a pretty overwhelming process”.  Being the first person in her family to graduate from college she didn’t really have a role model or someone to lean on who could help her through her educational journey.  She managed to get everything in order, and come fall of 1990 she would be attending CU Law School. 

“To say that law school was shocking and overwhelming would be an understatement”.  She began to feel the pressures of law school almost immediately.  She was an Hispanic woman in a field, led predominately by men and sometimes this fact made her feel very alone in her quest for a law degree.  “The pressure to be competitive did not just start when I entered the work force, but it really began when I was still in law school”.  Being a woman of Hispanic background, Deanna always felt that she had something more to prove then everyone else. Law school students are competitive by nature and women and men tend to be competitive as well.  When these two elements were mixed together it could make the pressure too much to handle at times. The amount of work that was given could often be more than Deanna could bear, but somehow each year she made it through. 

Within the first year alone there were at least ten students who could not handle the demands and the pressures of law school and they were forced to drop out.  While there were many times when she felt like giving up she was determined that she would not be one of the people who would give up on law school all together. 

Deanna was lucky enough to find some lifelong friends in law school who would help her navigate, not just through law school, but through many other phases of her life as well.  The many demands of law school could just seem too overwhelming without a good support system to back you up.  Everyone wanted to get the best grades and have the best opportunities for prized internships over the summer.  Deanna tried not to fall to the competitiveness of law school and just truly focus on doing the best job that she could do so she could graduate. 

The light at the end of the tunnel was that all of the hard work would pay off, and after law school was over she would be able to work in a career that she really believed she would love doing.  She had watched her parents work in jobs that were just jobs.  They were not really careers that they wanted to be doing, but instead it was a way for them to make a living and support their families.  Deanna did not want to settle for that.  She wanted to support herself and her future family by doing something that she knew she would love, so she pushed through the many obstacles that were thrown her way with that goal in mind.

Achievement

When the whole process started it seemed that graduation would never come, but like the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and end they did.  Deanna graduated from CU Law School in May of 1993.  Deanna reached her goal with a great sense of pride and achievement.  She knew what she wanted out of life and she wasn’t afraid to go after it.   Having gone through what were the three most challenging years of her life thus far she prepared for what would be the next great hurdle; taking the bar exam. 

Rumors swirled around of the many people who had attempted to take the bar and failed.  There were even many people who had taken the bar and failed several times, but in order to find gainful employment and begin to pay off the many student loans that she had, she was determined to pass the bar on her very first try.  What this would entail were endless days and nights of studying.  Nobody had contact with Deanna for over three months unless they were there to study for the bar exam with her or to help her study in some way.   She gave the studies everything she had for the next three months following law school and she was again rewarded for all of her hard work.  She passed the Colorado bar on her first try.  “I had never felt greater relief than knowing that I would not have to attempt the bar exam in Colorado again”.

Moving to the Next Phase

With her education and credentials in hand, Deanna ventured off into the work force.  She first worked for a judge in Denver.  This was a wonderful opportunity, but only lasted for three years.  She quickly found employment with another private firm in Denver working in family law.  Watching her own parents navigate through divorce she felt this would be something wonderful she could do to help other families deal with such a great loss.  She would practice family law for two years before deciding that it was to emotionally draining to practice day in and day out.  While she felt this was not the right fit for her she wasn’t sure what path she should take from here. 

She had not been this uncertain in quite some time because every decision she had made up till this point was one that she knew in her gut was the right decision.  She thought maybe an entirely new atmosphere is what she needed.  She had always wanted to live near the ocean and maybe this was the right time in her life to make another really big change.  She started to apply for jobs in Northern California and as luck would have it she landed an interview at the company that was formerly known as Bell Atlantic.  She got the call that the job was hers and so she packed up her life for the second time and headed to California.

A Sense of Peace

After settling into a life and career in California Deanna knew that she had made the right decision in moving.  She passed the bar in California and eventually worked in entertainment law for close to ten years.  In California she did really meet mister right and they were married and started a family together.  “Sometimes it is really amazing where life leads you”.  If you had asked Deanna five years ago if she would still be practicing law five years from now she would have answered, “absolutely”.  As it would turn out she has set law aside for the time being and is focusing her energy on being a great mother and taking a stab at being an entrepreneur.  She has started her own company and has found a new bliss in being her own boss.  “Working for yourself is pretty wonderful”. 

I think what Deanna is the most proud of today is that she has inspired the next generation to really reach for their goals.  Her younger sister is currently working towards her bachelor degree and her oldest niece just completed law school and is preparing to take the bar exam.  The best advice that she can give is this,  “You cannot always plan everything in life, but you can have a good picture of where you want your life to go and following that path can bring great happiness.”